The present method and apparatus are particularly applicable relative to the large-scale frenzied gift-wrapping that occurs throughout the United States just before major holidays such as, for example, Christmas and Hanukkah. Especially on such important occasions, it is common for one or more persons to be sitting or standing around a dining room table or card table-or kneeling or sitting on the floor-surrounded by numerous long rolls of conventional decorative and colored gift-wrap paper, and also surrounded by the gifts to be wrapped. Typically, the gift-wrap rolls are long and each has a cylindrical tubular cardboard core. It is common to switch from one pattern or color of decorative paper to another as the packages are progressively wrapped, instead of using the same paper for all packages.
In a conventional scenario, an often tired and harried operator slowly uses scissors (that may be dangerous) to cut a length of the gift-wrap paper. The cut is often made as much by lunging as by cutting, and the cut can often be characterized by tearing. In any event, it is common for the cutting to result in a zigzag configuration. Frustration is a frequent result of the crooked-cutting of gift-wrap paper by use of scissors.
Over the decades, it has on several occasions been proposed to cut paper from rolls thereof by use of blade-like elongate elements, the ends of which hook into the ends of the rolls so that a partial bearing action is created between the blade and the roll. Such devices, however, are not satisfactory for reasons including--among others--the difficulty of shifting from one roll of paper to another.
To be fully satisfactory, the apparatus must permit rapid shifting from one roll to another, must be cheap to manufacture, must be easy to use, and must be hand-held so that it can be used in any location and in whatever position the operator elects to use. The apparatus and method must be simple and must be capable of cutting a long straight edge in only a few seconds, and with a very short elapsed time between the instant when the operator decides what roll is to be used and the instant when cutting is completed. Other requirements for a fully successful apparatus to be employed for the specified purpose are that the apparatus be one-piece, not require any assembly, and be so shaped as to be stackable in nested conditions relative to numerous other identical paper cutters--such stacking occurring during shipment from any desired factory area to a point or points of packaging and distribution.